General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3)Bichat, Xavier
Science
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Bichat, Xavier
Human anatomy; Human physiology
The constant union of the arteries with the organic plexuses, an
union that presents an arrangement wholly different from that of the
ganglions, has undoubtedly an influence upon the action of these
plexuses, or rather upon that of the nerves that go from them, by the
motion the blood communicates to them. It should be remarked upon this
subject, that as nature has placed a crowd of arteries at the base of
the brain to agitate it with an alternate motion, she has put also the
most considerable plexus of the whole organic system upon one of the
places to which the red blood communicates the strongest impulse, viz.
upon the trunk of the cœliac.
III. _Structure, Properties, &c._
From what has been said above, it is evident that the nerves going from
the ganglions are of two sorts as it respects organization; 1st. those
that are identified with the cerebral system, by their white colour,
by the possibility of dividing their trunks into distinct cords, and
these into filaments, which appear to have nervous coats and medullary
substance like the preceding; 2d. those which present only little
separate filaments, greyish or reddish, soft, and which are seen in
prodigious numbers in the plexuses. Have these a nervous coat and a
medullary substance? It is impossible to determine it.
The properties of texture are ascertained with difficulty in the
organic nerves. As to vital properties, it is undoubted that the animal
sensibility is not as much raised in these nerves as in those of animal
life. I have often laid bare the plexuses in the abdomen; then by
letting the animal rest a moment, and by irritating them comparatively
with the lumbar nerves, I have uniformly made this remark. We know that
very frequently the ligature of the spermatic artery is not painful in
sarcocele, though the branches coming from the ganglions form for it
a plexus like a network, which can in no way be separated from it. If
we draw out a portion of intestines by a small wound in the abdomen,
the irritation of the sub-mucous layer at the side of the vessels,
is hardly felt, though many nerves of ganglions are found at this
place. I have had numerous occasions to act in different ways upon the
carotid, to which the superior cervical ganglion furnishes branches
from above; now, as long as I did not touch the par vagum, the animal
remained tranquil. I am far, however, from believing in the absolute
insensibility of the nerves of the ganglions; but certainly under the
circumstances that I have related, the cerebral nerves would have
caused much more pain to the animal.
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